When in Rome…

The saying “When in Rome do as the Romans do” may not have meant buying cars the same way, but Italy has found a new way to buy and sell cars which certainly appeals to the connected world. Typically you buy a car from a dealership and you either choose one that’s on their lot or order one with exactly what you want on it but one company is ready to offer you a new way to buy a car. Amazon and FCA have partnered up to bring you a way to buy a car that’s more hassle-free than ever.

When you typically order a car from a dealership you have to wait for that specific model to be built. The company puts the order in for you and builds your car, which is a process that can take as much as twelve weeks from the time of ordering until the date of delivery. That’s a long time to wait and if you happen to order a vehicle that’s built in another country it could be even longer than that. There has to be a faster way for you to order the car you want to buy.

Amazon Vehicles was launched a few months ago as a research service for interested buyers, but now this company has partnered with FCA to make it possible for you to order a new Fiat online. There are three models being offered and they’re only offered in Italy, but this is a step forward for Amazon and car shopping. Right now you can buy a 500, 500L or Panda in Italy and enjoy one of the four pre-determined equipment packages. This does give you an impressive discount on the Panda, which is the most popular model in Italy. This trio is a great way for Amazon and Fiat to test the potential for this program to see how well it will work for them.

Thankfully, with these predetermined setups you won’t have to wait as long to pick up your Fiat. You can pick it up at the dealership of your choosing within two weeks of ordering the vehicle, making it much easier and faster to get into the new Fiat model you want to drive. Does this mean Amazon has taken the reigns from Tesla in an alternate method of buying a new car? Will this spread to the rest of the world?

So far, Amazon is using a dealer network by partnering with Fiat, but that may change as they see the success they can have by offering cars through their ordering system. I would imagine Amazon will figure out how to offer this to more of the world in the near future so that we can have the ability to order vehicles through them on Amazon Vehicles. The challenge will be inventory. Will Amazon need to keep an inventory of a specific number of models or will they be able to enjoy a direct factory connection to have these cars built for them? I guess we’ll know more as this program is rolled out, but for now “when in Rome…”